With District Collector Mr.Rajendra Ratnoo - Social Media Initiative kick starts

Yesterday, with District Collector Mr.Rajendra Ratnoo, IAS, at his place.  We have launched the FaceBook FanPage "Rebuilding Economy and Ecology of Cuddalore" 

Cyclone Thane has caused a major devastation to the Cuddalore district. Major initiatives have been taken up by the government to rebuild the ecology and economy of this Cyclone battered coastal district. This fan page would be sharing the learnings / experiences acquired through the Rebuilding / Rehabilitation initiatives taken up by the District administration.Specific updates with respect to this "Post Thane" efforts would be taking its place in this Page. 

With a public page coming out, it would be a treasure trove of information in the days to come. These archives would be a gold mine of information to the needy. A cross platform like this where public could give their voice / opinion would get across the interested people to get involved and add value in bringing up good for the district in the days to come.

Glad to be part of this initiative at the instance of the District Collector. Stay tuned to hear more about the good things happening in Cuddalore. Have a visit to the FanPage here.

Went with my wife to Cuddalore Beach at 9.30 p.m.

You will know me that I love going for a stroll on the sands of the Cuddalore Silver beach often. So far I used to get to this beach usually during the evenings. I remember going to the beach was at the most being at 8.30 p.m.

But, today was bit different. Went to shopping with my wife to buy her a pair of sandals and some groceries . 

Tomorrow is Maasi Magam festival and Cuddalore beach will be witnessing a gala with temple idols of Gods brought here and ritually bathed. So, today evening the beach would be having some small crowd in view of the festival tomorrow. Going to this beach at this odd hour at any other day is not advisable. But, today its different since people will be around awaiting for the dawn to witness the festival

 

After finishing the shopping itinerary, tipped to my better half for a trip to the beach. Got surprised with the nod from Gayathri. 

We went there at the odd 9.00 p.m. and had a stroll of the small shops which were to be closed in another hour. Walking past the shops and getting into the sand was too nice a moment with cool wind making an awesome flow.  After strolling bare foot on the cool sands happened to sit and take in some fresh air. After some time we were lucky to witness fireworks show happening at Cuddalore Old Town which is some 5 kms south of this beach.

Wished to pass an hour there. But to be vetoed of my two children and family awaiting at home for us to return, we made the hard decision to go back home.

Hey you beach, see you soon with a lonely trip past 10.00 p.m. next time. You made my heart and mind get a refreshing moment.

My blogging life, Cuddalore blog, The district collectors

My passion for blogging started off with reading a news article which mentioned that blogging will contribute in decision making by the government. This was during the early 2005. Though, I read it and packed off that day's newspaper, that news bit gave an impetus for me "Why not try?". Those were the days neither a PC nor a broadband connection was there at home. I wait in queue at the internet kiosk to get a computer to browse and then too need to wait for minutes to see the websites open up and it did cost me Rs.30 per hour.

I had been running a yahoo e-group named cuddalore@yahoogroups.com. It was during that time a request for joining this group from a student named Madhu. After that, we became friends to be known only through the internet and we then not got any chance to get to know of our location in Cuddalore.

Those were the days, wherein blogging was getting to be heard through online and offline and Madhu had then started a blog for our town Cuddalore. My impetus to write on the web got to reality and I joined Madhu in writing at this blog. At first I had been writing about the issues / hardships faced in Cuddlaore, weather reports during stormy/rainy days and any other public events. Very few people out there would chance upon to read those write-ups.

As days passed, this blog became very popular of its kind and got to come up in top few results in Google. At one moment we got the surprise to know that the then district collector Mr.Gagan Deep Singh Bedi, IAS., was following up the posts published in this blog and taking up corrective measures. So the interest in making out quality posts got my top priority. See, nobody teaches you on how to write, you need to get out of experience and this was an opportunity to write in a better way, day in and day out. I would write less than five posts per month.

After his departure from Cuddalore, then came the new collector Mr.Rajendra Ratnoo, IAS. I was not expecting that this collector may have had the chance to visit this Cuddalore blog, but to be defeated of my belief. During one occasion, I had posted a photograph highlighting the problem of contaminated drinking water in my region. There were follow-up comments made by this district collector himself asking me to come and attend the water supply meeting. Days passed and I kept in touch with him through SMS and phone calls.

Now, Mr.Rajendra Ratnoo has got transferred to Kanyakumari district. Myself and Madhu wanted to have a short meeting with this great personality. So I sent a request for appointment through SMS and after some 5 to 10 minutest a call back from my District Collector. Such is the reach from him a generous personality...

"Hi Srinivasan, How are you…….."

And the next 2 hours on 31st May'09 we were there at his Chamber...

As already discussed with him, we got to see the sendoff meet given by the tribal people . After that, we got to his chamber, there were officials in the DRO cadre having discussions with him. After a few minutes he finished seeing off the officials followed by a few citizens who came with grievance and a college girl who aspires to pursue IAS sought his blessing and bid him farewell continued by a photo click. Then our talk started.

We actually needed an insight from this top most official. Yes we started an interview. And during the interview we were astonished on how he got inspiration to become a IAS.

His was a big family of 8 people from a small place in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan state. His father was a revenue department official and it was his dream to see one of his sibling make it into the India Administrative Service. Our collector’s initial days of school sans much infrastructure. It had a single room and even basic amenities was then a distant dream for this small school. Such was his hardship and he further pursued his studies and came up in diffent colours and made into the Administrative services.

The interview ran for more than 35 minutes and we need to sit for transcribing the interview. Another article is there in the making.

We packed our visit with a load of sweet moments and thoughts in our heart.

And we had a click for our memories.

Good bye Sir and wishing you all the very best in your future endeavors .